TV Review: ‘Sailor Moon Crystal: Usagi’

It’s been over twenty years since ‘Sailor Moon‘ first hit the Japanese airwaves, and fans all over the world are glad to see it return in the form of ‘Sailor Moon Crystal.’ Never before have fans been able to stream a Japanese show from anywhere in the world, and it’s a real treat to have its international fanbase recognized.

Despite the fact that this episode is pretty much scene for scene the same as the first episode of the original episode, there is quite a lot to talk about.

Let’s start with the artwork. This time around, the artwork is a lot more adult. Too adult, in fact, for what I would consider a middleschooler. All of the students are as long and lanky as their adult counterparts, and much more endowed. While the animation is cleaner, it only fits with the serious aesthetic of Sailor Moon. The comic parts feel out of place, because it’s still done in that beautiful style whereas in the manga and the original series, they would change the art to fit better with Usagi crying, or tripping, or saying stupid things.

There are a lot of Utena-like moments in the art style, which includes black silhouettes, and roses bordering scenes where a new character is introduced. While Naoko Takeuchi did use flowers in background designs, it wasn’t typical that she would do it in this way. Usually, she used lace patterns, especially when introducing an important plot point. Why this Utena like style is being applied, I’m not sure, but it very pretty.

Lastly, the transformation scene, which I have been looking forward since they announced the new series, is disappointing to say the least. It was rendered three-dimensionally, and looks far too much like a video game than I’m comfortable with. That being said, if there was a video game rendered as well as this, I would be in awe, but since it doesn’t fit the frame rate of the style of the animation in the rest of the episode, it just feels out of place.

Now on to the story.

Though it’s hard to say from one episode, this story does look like it follows the manga more cleanly, and also introduces elements for a smoother storytelling. For example, Usagi and Mamoru have a tense first meeting (complete with Mamoru wearing the same weird casual tuxedo from the manga), but it’s tempered by a feeling from their past lives. In the original series, it was hard to believe a relationship would form between two people with such consistent animosity, but it looks like the creators of this series are trying to lay the groundwork for the star-crossed lovers’ past lives to interfere with their current ones so it doesn’t blindside the audience as much as it did in the original anime.

Moving on, the voice acting is remarkable, as it should be for this series. But then again, that’s too be expected when Kotono Mitsuishi is coming back to play the role she had played for over a hundred episodes. It will be interesting to see how the new voice actors will do with Sailor Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus, but I have high hopes.

All in all, it’s a good first episode, even if it’s not terribly interesting (we have seen the story of the monster in the jewelry store play out many times in many different Sailor Moon iterations), it does look promising in that it is following the manga more closely. Still, we’ll have to see, and ScienceFiction.com will be there. See you in two weeks for the next episode where it looks like we will be introduced to Sailor Mercury, Ami Mizuno!

Alison "Boom" Baumgartner

Boom believes the truth is out there, and that there is no such thing as a final frontier. She isn’t, however, entirely convinced that a towel is that useful for all situations.As a science fiction nerd, she has written her Masters dissertation on spatial philosophy in Star Trek, hosts a science fiction podcast called Loving the Alien, and has accidentally ended up on convention panels about Star Wars.The things she likes outside of Science Fiction include British panel shows, writing young adult stories, reciting the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in an attempt to be ironically cool, and sketch comedies.

The main issue with this is that the characters really lack expressions so most of the time you have the typical neutral face.

The original show executed this very well, and I also feel Sailor Moon in this lacks personality. The way this show plays out is also typical and is more like every other slice of life anime and doesn’t have much anything to call it’s own.

The animation is typical and lacks fluidity for the most part, it seems it’s rather limited in budget for the animation.

It’s hard to really feel much anything for the characters due to the stiffness of the animation and lack of expression.

I also feel this doesn’t captivate the manga nor the original’s animation charm. It’s not that it’s different, it’s that it reminds me of every other modern anime out there which is disappointing.

In the end it isn’t awful, it’s just that it’s very generic now.

John Sotomayor

Did we watch the same show? I thought the animation was so fluid and beautiful (I mean, just look at the opening!) and the expressions were full of emotion!

The “personality” we see in the original anime owes a lot to anime tropes and budget-friendly shortcuts, like exaggerated faces, giant sweatdrops…those kinds of things. Crystal doesn’t seem to be doing much of that. But Usagi totally showed emotion. She was sad, angry, happy, envious, dreamy, and terrified all in one episode, and you can plainly see it in her face in addition to Mitsuishi’s acting…which you seem to have completely ignored in your comment. I understand that animation is largely a visual medium, but the acting plays an important role, too. Regardless, though, Usagi made plenty of different faces. There was even an instant, after asked who she was and she stammered for a moment and Luna meowed at the moon, where we see her form a confident smile. But we only see her lips/lower face in this scene. We don’t even see her eyes or the rest of her face; all we see is her lips forming that calm, confident smirk and that just REEKS of emotion to me. And I’m pretty sure that’s lifted right from the manga (I need to double-check so I might indeed be wrong about that, but I swear I remember that panel). That is the ESSENCE of capturing the manga’s spirit, at least to me.

Since this was pretty much a panel-by-panel recreation of the first act of the manga (with some additional moments thrown in, like the Silver Millennium dream sequences), I’d say it captures the manga’s charm perfectly.

fanfan

I TOTALLY agree 🙂

Dragoon of the red eye Dragon

after watching the first three, I am not impressed at all, and have to agree that it does look like your standard run of the mill show.

they just seem a little thin to me.. I mean I know they are based more on their book series but still a little meat on their bones compared to their paper thin limbs that look like a sneeze can break them.

that and I don’t feel their theme song fits either.

sounds nit pickish but lets face it crystal has to compete with the first Sailor Moon and that is hard to do for some fans.

Personally its the thin mint bodies, theme song, and their long winded intro they do whenever they showed up(yes that bugged me in the first sailor moon as well) that annoys me the most.

I also skip their long winded speeches when reading as it just seems more like space filler than anything else.

one last thing, what is up with Mamu-chan wearing his tux for no reason?

it was out of place unless they was trying to beat us over the head to make sure we knew he was TM….

John Sotomayor

That’s weird, because I LOVE their super thin physique. That’s the style Takeuchi worked with in the manga, and all I’ve ever wanted was to see the manga in animated form…and I got what I wanted. =)

Crystal does not have to “compete” with the “first Sailor Moon” (you mean the first adaptation; the first Sailor Moon was the manga) because both Crystal and the first anime are done by the same studio: Toei Animation.

I think the theme song rocks.

As for Mamoru wearing his tux: beats me, he’s eccentric. I don’t give it much thought, though, because he stops doing that as the manga goes on.

Basically, I love Crystal for all the reasons you don’t seem to like it, so I guess we just have different tastes. =) But at least YOUR critiques are more solid than, “oh, they’re not showing any emotion!” If you don’t like the lithe, long bodies of the characters (and these are NOTHING compared to the body designs in xxxHolic), then that’s a valid point. You don’t have to like it. But the person I originally replied to was insisting that the characters don’t show emotion, which is just false.

Dragoon of the red eye Dragon

yeah I was talking about the first animated series where they looked normal and not a walking stick figure with clothes, eyes, and hair.

don’t get me wrong I do like the manga still wish they wasn’t so long winded whenever the show up and that as I said before had meat on their thin mint bones.

as to their theme song it just doesn’t scream Sailor moon like the first animated series did.

but as you say each their own.

kelly-lee

yer

Aaron

“I love Crystal, but……….” “The art is amazing, but…………..” You know what, I’m tired of the “but this, and but that.” Sailormoon Crystal is beautiful no matter how you look at it. The transformation utilizes CG, so what, it looks amazing. If people want to create their own version of Sailormoon, then do it. Then, they can have whatever nitpicky thing they want. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m really fed up with the nitpicking. This is another adaptation of Sailormoon. It’s not supposed to be exactly like anything else, it is its own entity, tirelessly made for everyone, without charge, and with love and care. If a complaint is valid, fine, but so far I have not heard one valid complaint/nitpick.

John Sotomayor

I think that SOME of the complaints are valid — like, if someone tends to not like CGI in their animation, then a complaint of not liking the transformation is valid. But overall, yes, I agree with you. It’s one thing to have critiques. It’s another to be as nitpicky as the Sailor Moon fandom has been — worse in other places than in this article. I mean, my god, the trailer came out and suddenly everyone was an animation expert, “oh my god look at the derpy faces,” it drove me crazy.

I especially love the accusations that the budget isn’t enough, or complaints about rushed story pacing. This is just like how the manga was! The first story arc is not for characterization of the girls; it’s to introduce you to the whole story. The Inners get their characterization moments sprinkled throughout the 2nd and 3rd arcs, and *especially* in the Dream arc (the 4th).

Aaron

If someone doesn’t like the CGI, okay, fine. That is a valid complaint, although I don’t understand why, since it looked like a cartoon anyway. Overall, I just expected more from the fandom. I think people will nitpick much less once the series really gets underway. I’ts only been one episode. Moon Power!

Fate

I don’t understand why people think they look so ‘adult’. I was tall and skinny at that age, and I think they’re actually less ‘endowed’ than originally. They look far more childish and less sexual to me. The originals look borderline buxom in comparison.